To sign up, visit www.open.fiu.edu. Students can enroll and complete the course at their own pace. At the end of the course, participants have the option of receiving a certificate of completion. No college credit will be awarded, FIU said.

. . . A well-regarded public university giving credit for free or inexpensive MOOCs, meanwhile, is like a crack in an enormous dam. When MOOC credits become widely available and the dam bursts, college prices that have been kept high [will] settle at a much lower level. . .

MOOCs could become game-changers in many ways. Students may end up coming out ahead.

The MOOC movement expands further. Arizona State University, University of Arkansas system and University of Cincinnati will convert a few existing, for-credit online courses and offer those courses for free. The program is called MOOC2Degree. Forty public universities are involved in the initiative.